New Jersey's tight gun laws ensnare out-of-staters

Saturday, August 2, 2014

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — When Shaneen Allen was pulled over by police in southern New Jersey last year, the Philadelphia woman assumed it would be a routine traffic stop.

But instead of getting a traffic ticket, the single mother of two young children was arrested on weapons charges that could require her to serve three years in prison.

The charges came after Allen told the officer she had a handgun in her vehicle and has a concealed carry permit issued by Pennsylvania. But that license carries no legal weight in New Jersey, which has some of the nation's strictest gun control laws.

Allen's case and others like it have highlighted the legal problems often faced by out-of-state residents who bring weapons to New Jersey, unaware of their laws.